At the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta, Roberta Groner was ready. She has just had completed the best running of her life, including a marathon PR and first American at the World Championships. Gone were the days of running conservatively while hoping for a negative split. In Atlanta Roberta planned on running at the front with her peers - the other top women in the field. Roberta was eager and anxious to shoot her shot.

Then she stepped off the course at mile 17.

It took a year and a half for Roberta to shrug off the heaviness of that day. All the expectations. All the effort. All of the sacrifices. And for what... her first DNF?

In 2022, Roberta turned it all around when she joined the Central Park Track club as an athlete and coach. From that day forward she started to recapture the spontaneous joy that can come from training, racing, and communing with running friends. Over the next two years she not only embraced the love she had for the sport, she also raced with abandon. Roberta set four American masters records (8k, 10k, 10 mile, and half-marathon) and showed herself, and everyone paying attention, that she was far from done.

Roberta arrived in Orlando for the 2024 Trials with redemption on her mind and in her heart. That drive was counterbalanced with joy, love, and a calm confidence. She left Orlando with a 24th place finish and the freedom that comes when a journey of redemption ends in success.

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